[LAU] UEFI (was How to turn off hyperthreading?)

[Patrick Shirkey]

On Fri, March 29, 2013 6:55 am, Chris Caudle wrote:
>> Message: 18
>> Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:31:59 +0800
>> From: Simon Wise <simonzwise at gmail.com>
>> To: linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
>> Subject: Re: [LAU] How to turn off hyperthreading?
>> Message-ID: <515132CF.4010901 at gmail.com>
>>
>> Because UEFI is designed to prevent hardware being booted unless it is
>> into an unmodified and signed OS version
>
> You are confusing UEFI, SecureBoot[TM], and Microsoft requirements
> concerning implementations of certain options.
> I have booted unsigned operating systems plenty of times on a UEFI system.
>
>> and this hardware lock can be set up so it cannot be turned off
>
> That would refer to a particular implementation of SecureBoot, which is an
> optional part of UEFI.  Not every system with UEFI necessarily supports
> UEFI, most which do allow you to disable.
>
>> For intel devices microsoft does not require UEFI to be set so it
>> can't be turned off, for non-intel tablets it does. So Linux is
>> locked out of any such devices.
>
> So don't buy ARM tables with Windows-RT on them.
>
>> and be very cautious of UEFI on any device since it means you no longer
>> have control of hardware you thought you had bought and now own.
>
> Not true at all.  UEFI is just a specification for a boot environment.  It
> has a lot of cool features and is a lot more flexible than legacy BIOS.
> If you are concerned that the secure boot feature might be locked down,
> just make sure to ask whether secure boot can be disabled and how key
> management is handled if you are considering buying a device with UEFI.
>

UEFI is a "microsoft" rootkit and backdoor so "they" (as in "They Live")
can spy on you and take control of your computer any time "they" want. If
you are happy to allow that it's your personal choice. I'm not and I won't
be buying any UEFI boards. The good news is there are some manufacturers
who are still producing board that don't have UEFI on them. Just because
"Microsoft" wants to control everyone doesn't mean the market will allow
that to happen. You can bet the Chinese and several other countries
(BRICS) are thinking twice about allowing UEFI to be placed on all their
citizens computers.




--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd